A Beginners Guide to Basketball
by ragingisms
Summary: College has just began, and Basketball Captain, Ruby, is looking for new recruits. Will she be able to recruit the prettiest girl, Sapphire?


It was the beginning of fall semester, leaves crunches under the weight of hasty student trying to find where they belong. There was the football team, the cheerleaders, men and women's basketball teams, the art club, the choir- Every team and club you could possibly think of was there at Beach City University. Yet, the aquamarine haired girl had no idea where she belongs in this school. It was quite possible that she DIDN'T have anywhere to belong. Chattering scorned her ears, causing her to flinch when the volume picked up. How could students be so loud?

Spinning on her leather clad boot, Sapphire squinted to see a mass of tanned skin and thick curls jog towards her. In retaliation, Sapphire threw her arms out in front of her and closed her eyes tight, expecting the person to collide with her. Instead, she heard a laughed the actually made her heart skip a beat. "Whoa there, tiger- I'm not gonna plow you over!" She heard. Once she opened her eyes, she gasped slightly. Right before her eyes was a short, muscular female with tight, thick curls in a red jersey that said 'BCU BEARS #34'. She was pretty.

Taking in the sight, Sapphire mentally shook her head once she noticed the girl was talk. "What, I'm sorry?" She said, head cocking forward a bit as if to show her she wanted her to repeat herself.

"I'm Ruby, captain of the women's basketball team, we're recruiting this yea-" Her spiel was quickly cut off by the taller of the two saying 'I'm not good at sports.' With a furrowed brow, Ruby put her hands on her hips. "Nonsense, everyone can be good at anything."

Sapphire frowned, lips puckering slightly in disdain. "No, I'm really not good. I'm blind in one eye, I'm not supposed to play," She explained, hugging her books to her chest as she felt embarrassed by her jabbering. Ruby wet her lips in thought and decided she wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Well, you should come check us out sometime, I'm sure if you saw us, you might change your mind," She hummed, taking a flyer in between Sapphire's binder and notebook. And with a wink, she was off. Sapphire breathed in sharply, chest heaving her back a little as she blushed furiously.

"W-Who does she think she is?" Sapphire mumbled to herself, her slow walk turning into a quick stride, her hair whipping back behind her in pace with her. "S-Seriously? I told her I can't but she still wanted me to go? How rude!" Huffing, Sapphire pulled out the flyer, took a quick look at it before tossing it who knows else well. It didn't take long for the girl to reach her first class. Relieved to sit down, Sapphire slunked down in her seat for a moment before snapping upright when the professor came in. Opening to the first blank page, Sapphire smoothed out the page and began writing as the teacher began speaking. Mostly introductory stuff, then onto the more important information. Who knew the first day of university moved so quickly?

Half way into class, the metal clattering of the door broke the silence, causing the now calm girl to look up from her neatly written notes, almost angered by the noise. Following the nose was the girl from earlier, a wide grin on her face. 'Sorry, teach. The couch was talking to me.' she said. Sapphire sighed. This wasn't going to be fun. She then heard the short basketball player gasp as if she recognized Sapphire- and she did. Almost immediately, Ruby rushed up the steps. Sapphire wanted to put her bag next to her. She wanted to block the girl from sitting next to her, but before she could ever move, the girl took the seat from her side. Sapphire rolled her eyes in slight annoyance. "It's still a no."

Ruby huffed, leaning forward on her palm to stare at Sapphire, profiling her for her flaws and perfections. "You're tall, you look fast, and you're also thin. You could move quickly in between players, you'd be perfect. A blind eye is nothing to stop you," She stated bluntly. This surprised the gem named girl. How could she be so blunt when she just met her? Sapphire sat there in silence before closing her notebook and put her pencil on top of it, surprisingly parallel to the spine of her notebook.

"What don't you understand about no?" Sapphire said coldly, shooting a half glare at Ruby which immediately made the fiery girl freeze up. It honestly more upset Sapphire than anything that she was disabled this kind of way. It held her back from a lot of the things she wanted to do during her school years. But it was just something she had to deal with. "I told you I can't see out of one eyes. I told you I'm not good to play, and yet you still want me to be on your team?"

"Yes." Ruby said quite simply. Sapphire's eyes widened a fraction as she scanned Ruby for any kind of joking body language. She was completely serious. With her head snapping the opposite direction of Ruby, Sapphire sighed out a complaint. 'You're a joke,' she muttered, chewing on the inside of her cheek, hoping it would make Ruby shut up for the rest of the period.

It didn't.

Later that evening, Sapphire had decided she had enough with the constant yelling of other students to the point where she'd walk down the hallway, earphones in both ears to block out anything other than her music. This however, caused her to be distracted. Humming along to a song from the artist 'Garnet', Sapphire closed her eyes as she walked for just a second. And within that mere moment, she found herself colliding with a sea of hair.

Surprised, Sapphire bounced back a little, to see an agitated giant standing in front of her. It was obvious she was some kind of sports person just based on height, weight and muscle mass. It obviously frightened the girl. "Watch it!" The giant growled, only to have her friends call her 'Jasper' and try to hold her back a little bit. It didn't take long for, what looked like the frailest of the group, Peridot, to apologize and explain Jasper had Intermittent Explosive Disorder. Sapphire understood Jasper's attitude immediately. Giving the girls a nod, Sapphire sped off.

Making herself finally comfortable, Sapphire watched as groups of friends went by, a small sigh escaping her lips. When would she be a part of a group like that? Though, her thoughts were cut off by, what was louder than she could have thought the hollering of her name. Looking up from her hands to see that same basketball player from earlier, Ruby. She let out a small sigh. "If you're going to bother me about basketball- You can forget it." She said, chewing on her lip as locks of her hair fell in front of her defective eye.

" No no no! A bunch of my friends and I are going out for lunch today, wanna go?" Said the shorter, bulkier girl with her hands in her pockets. Yet, Sapphire thought the build suited Ruby, it was pleasant to look at- Not that she would say it out loud. Giving Ruby a stoic nod, Sapphire put her thing back into her bag and stood up.

"Where to?"

Sapphire walked slowly, eyes hovering around her surroundings. Her sight mainly focused on those around her. There was a tall, skinny girl with tanned but pale skin. She assumed the girl was Indian due to the white oval shaped bindi on her forehead. Next was a much shorter and much chubbier girl with long purple hair, thick lips, and quiet the loud mouth. It was pretty much only the four of them. Thankful that it was a bunch of girls, Sapphire clutched her bag close to her, listening to the conversation rather than actually talking.

"Yo, Rube- Your girlfriend's pretty quiet, huh?" The short one, who goes by Amethyst, said. Of course, Sapphire could already tell she was teasing, but Ruby took it all too seriously by getting flustered and expressing how Sapphire wasn't her girlfriend. At least she didn't lie about that.

"Amethyst has a point," Pearl spoke, arms crossed delicately over her thin features. "You don't talk much at all. Is something wrong, Sapphire?" Shaking her head, Sapphire smiled towards to polite one.

"No, I'm just more of a listener," Sapphire confessed, eyebrow twitching up slightly as Amethyst starred for a good thirty seconds. She then looked at Ruby and told her she had a pretty voice, as if Ruby was her caretaker or something.

It didn't take long for the girls to finish their lunches, get back to school and disperse into their own college lives. Well, for the most part. After saying goodbye to Amethyst and Pearl, Ruby followed Sapphire. "Why are you following me?" She asked her voice its usual monotonous rhythm as she walk, not looking at the other.

"Because I can."

"Is this about Basketball?"

"Yep."

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Sapphire looked at Ruby. "Look, I really can't play, why is that not enough? What kind of captain would want a defective player on their team, anyways?"

"Who said you even had to play? We can use a manager too."

At this point, Sapphire was exhausted from all the questions. Giving Ruby a silent 'Bye' pat on the shoulder, she walked off, leaving the confused girl in the hall way.


End file.
